Sira’s anger had initially thrown Addy off balance. Never before had they encountered an issue when it came to whom they chose to warm their bed. Never before had Sira tried to run off one of her lovers. Two conflicting emotions lent to Addy’s waif like reaction and the way she hovered on the edges of the conflict. The first was the confusion she felt at Eoin’s semi-acquiescent attitude and the way he still held himself away from her. The second was a mixture of anger and guilt at Sira, her initial emotion being conflicted by the guilt. Was she acting this way because of the raging hormones? Had the baby kicked her the wrong way, kept her up and uncomfortable during her Watch? Was she really just that mad at Addy?
This emotional battle waged while Sira ripped Eoin a new one, the man backing down before the angered Wind Eagle. Really, it was the worst thing he could do. How could he not see that Sira was testing him? She didn’t want Addy messing around with a pushover, someone who couldn’t stand up for himself.
Please, Sira. She whispered, her mental voice pleading even as she tried to keep her face from showing such emotion. Obviously, Addy missed any and all humor in the situation. Give him a break or I just might have to stab your next lover in the eye. The threat was an empty one, full of desperation. Having just met him, the woman had no idea what this little game of Sira’s would actually do to Eoin.
“I apologize, and thank you, Sira.” Apparently, something had gone on that Addy had completely missed. Stepping forward from where she hovered in the shadows, the healer held up a hand, looking from amazed green eyes to laughing golden ones.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What…”
“Please, after you.”
She was cut off, Eoin ushering her forward with the steady seriousness in which he had regarded her the night before. Great, so they were back there again? Not only had they shared a bed as well as in intimate night, but Addy thought they had started to make some actual progress between them. Following Eoin’s lead in silence, Addy turned and marched through the doorway. Her silent leave of Sira spoke volumes to the other woman: This wasn't over. Sira would be getting an earful after Eoin left.
Striding as quickly as she could across the open common room and into the bathroom. Sira was not given a glance or a word when she left, for she was really the one at fault here; Addy was unaware of the silent truce that had breached the gap of miscommunication between Sira and Eoin. She had even less idea that Eoin was ushering her away of his own accord, that Sira had given him permission rather than an order.
Waiting just inside the doorjamb for Eoin, Addy slammed the heavy wooden door shut after his heels cleared the door’s path. It was a loud and sudden sound that surely would have made the healer jump had she not been the one to push the door into its swing.
“So, what now? We pretend to have some fun so that Sira doesn’t get angrier?” Crossing her arms over her chest, Addy leaned back against the closed door, pinning her flashing green gaze on a spot between Eoin’s shoulder blades. Though she was completely wrong about it all, the only thing Addy could see before her was a man who couldn’t stand up for himself, nor would he stand up for her and the small, tiny connection that they had. Or, that she thought they had. Instead now she was left feeling foolish for trying, for hoping or reaching towards a connection that she hadn’t realized she longed for. For the warmth of a man’s strong touch. A tough, confident man’s touch. But… was Eoin any of those at all?
With her minds eye flicking images of Kovac at her, his smirking grin piercing the rampage of confusing emotions within her, Addy realized that she hadn’t felt this confused since she first tried to rectify her feelings for the Snarky little Hunter. What was it about these men who walled themselves off from even their own true feelings that drew Addy in so surely?
It had always irritated the woman when she sought the company of another and was denied such; she was attractive and knew how to act, a social perfectionist that could read a person almost as easily as she could read a book. However, these two men had proven to be her undoing. Kovac, whom she had never consummated her desire for, and Eoin who had shared her bed and yet… still this feeling of being unable to attain plagued her.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, an image stirred; Kovac, with his sad eyes, walls of indifference keeping anyone who wasn’t looking closely enough from seeing what was really inside. And Eoin, with the same eyes, sad and protected yet with something more... an anger that Addy hadn’t seen in her Hunters. They both needed fixing, and it had been more than reaffirmed within herself that Addy had been made to fix.
That small realization quelled the bubbling anger within her chest, but it did little to sate her current irritation. Once the healer took hold of an emotion, it was hard for her to let it go until it had run its course. Eoin had some explaining to do, some apologizing as well, and the fact that she might have touched on some answers within herself didn’t change that.
He had his back to her, so his face was a mystery though his silence had become what she expected of him. It took a matter of moments before Addy realized that Eoin was cleaning up, that he hadn’t stooped to more easily fold his body into a sitting position on the warm stone floor of the washroom.
“Oh, just leave it and look at me.” But still he hung the bryda up and started the bath water before responding to her wishes. Well, that was something at least; she had only been trying to get him to treat her like an equal their whole friendship thus far, and any other Endal wouldn't drop what he was doing to listen to her. Yes, Addy liked to be obeyed. It was a privilege that being Endal had shown her and one to which she had quickly found useful; while she didn’t make it a common practice to boss Avora around, the spare Dek she passed, who seemed to be slacking on his work was quick to run and get her whatever she desired.
Waiting until Eoin stopped in front of her, Addy propped her hands up on her bare hips, canting them slightly as she leaned her shoulder against the wall.
“What was that about? You know, in my presence, in my bed, you’re allowed to stand up for yourself? Do I not get the same respect of someone of your own caste, should you have been sleeping with them when another barged in? Something tells me you would have put the barger-inner in their place, had that been the case.”
Brow furrowing, Addy let her irritation grab hold of her tongue, not really realizing how silly she sounded as she spoke without thinking first. Fingers tapped against her hip bone, her lips turned down in a frown that looked more like a pout than anything else. In fact, she looked very petulant.
“Maybe this was a bad idea. If you don’t want to be in my company, than just say so. Gods forbid you’re forced to be around me.”
